Here's my bike!

04/25/2013

If you're in Mississauga today, you might see a heavily laden Trek bicycle ridden by a guy who looks too small for the load: that would be Bill Parker, Canada's bicycle vagabond.

I first wrote about Parker back in 2008 when he was passing through Waterloo Region. A divorce had set him off on a quest for something different, and he thought he'd spent the good riding weather that year travelling from his home in Edmonton to Newfoundland.

Five years later and he's still on the road, and every couple of weeks, I get a note from someone who has played host to the affable cycle tourist, offering him a clean washroom and a warm place to sleep.

Today, thanks to the cellphone of his host in Norval, in the Halton Hills, I had a chance to catch up to Parker and see how he's doing. Given the chance to digest his stream-of-consciousness storytelling, I understand that he's doing quite well, thanks.

He did make it to Newfoundland -- "I liked it in Gander, and some of those places where they do the foot-stomping and clapping to the music" -- and has ambled through Quebec -- "Did you know they can grow bananas in greenhouses in the winter?" -- but his limited understanding of French makes Quebec "tough".

Mostly, he rides around Ontario, from north to south and east to west. "I stayed with some people south of Ottawa. They bought an old school for a toonie and run a knitting school."

Since 2008, he's stayed with engineers, pavers, counsellors, pastors, a woman who lets her goat into the house at night, a chap with 100 tarantulas in cages in his living room, and a flight instructor outside Niagara Falls who took Parker on a light plane aerial tour of the Falls and area. "Last night (Monday), I stayed with a psychic. I've never stayed with a psychic before."

He usually bunks in out buildings, garages, trailers or barns: "Some of the places people let you stay in -- you can't find a clean spot anywhere," and has even slept in a child's playhouse.

Some people offer him a meal or put his rain-soaked clothes into the dryer. Some share "a brown bottle" and stories. Usually, he only stays overnight and is off again.

In the age of caution, it does sound unlikely that 300 nights a year, there are people willing to take in a complete stranger with an overloaded bicycle and often, rain or mud-splattered garb, but here it is, Year Five, and Parker is still finding places to park.

Having said that, it's not all roses: he's had the occasional white-knuckle moment on the road -- "My big worry is about motorists" -- and the light-fingered have lifted equipment -- "Someone took my mitts and my maps."

Parker says he finds work here and there to keep some coin in his pocket, and heads back to Alberta in the worst of the winter for steady work: "It's bad for an Edmonton boy to say this," but he prefers to work in Calgary: "it's cleaner."

With five years of riding the back roads under his belt, is it time to move on to something else? He says, somewhat unconvincingly, "Oh, I might be done in a year or so..."

And will these travels be the meat for a book? He pauses and says, "Well, I'd have to sit in a room..."

So, we ended our chat with his plans to ride into Mississauga, clocking his usual 40 miles (64 kilometres) a day. There may be rain later: he'll be looking for somewhere to dry his clothes again.

05/21/2011

11/20/2010

I had a chance to try a variety of different bicycles from Bicycle Forest today, as part of the Kitchener-Waterloo Lion's Club Santa Claus Parade.

The regional Tree Huggers environmental action group, under the wing of dandelion-lover Susan Koswan, partners with Brent Curry's Bicycle Forest to add to the human-powered aspect to the annual parade.

Ironic it was to be waiting in our place for the parade to start, with one parade entry ahead of us idling its engine and another parade entry behind us idling its engine. Apparently, we were the carbon offset.

Here we are meeting at the Bicycle Forest HQ to pick a vehicle and do some basics: pump tires, etc. While we were each responsible for getting our selection to the parade start and back from the parade finish, it was expected that we would swap rides frequently through the parade.

The Rhoades car took some extra preparation before it was ready to hit the road. One taillight had come loose. I think the Rhoades Car is so well crafted to look like a car, that many people along the parade took a while to register that this, too, was a human-powered vehicle. Since it carried spare bikes in its box, it is possible that some people assumed it was a support "vehicle."

The tandem went back in the garage, as did the Hula Bike, but the penny-farthing, the folding Strida bike and the Finnish Kick Bike were chosen by volunteers.

I liked the various trike recumbents, but opted for the Kick Bike for variety. I had a chance to ride both and appreciate the challenges facing low-riders. I was below eye-level of five-year-olds standing on the adjacent curbs. A flag would seem to be an essential for road riding.

The Couch Bike drew the most comments, including a pre-parade group of four University of Waterloo engineers who began explaining how they would install the electrical system to run the big-screen TV they felt was essential to attach.

I had a chance to ride the Strida, the Kick Bike, two trikes, the Varna handcycle and the Couch Bike. It was a great opportunity to try a number of bikes under road conditions. I certainly learned that I do not have the upper body to make handcycling much fun, but the Kick Bike was OK.

The reaction from the crowd was great. I've been in parades before, and participants don't get to see the parade . . . they see the crowd. So for us, the people in their crazy winter hats, wrapped in blankets, high-fiving us as we rolled along and asking to trade their (insert fave thing here) for our bikes, provided our entertainment.

To cap the irony of the parade's beginning, as we came to the end of it, one of the parade marshalls called out to us to "Get off the road now so we can let the vehicles go through." Of course, I felt obliged to call back, "We're bicycles. We belong on the road."

04/20/2010

Two years after I first posted on Bill Parker of Edmonton, he's still riding around Ontario on his touring bike.

I just got a note today from Syl and Steve Pauls of Beaverton, Ont., who invited Parker to join them for a turkey dinner and packed him a turkey sandwich for his trip on toward Toronto.

Riding around Ontario, sleeping where you can and meeting great people: sounds like a dream bicycle adventure. And I'd like to get in touch with Parker to chat about his trip. If you wind up being his next host, let me know here or call my office number at 519-895-5614.

08/18/2009

I met Kelly Gray and Pam Gray at the start line for the second half of the MS Bike Tours Brampton to Waterloo fundraising ride on Sunday.

I couldn't help but notice that his Giant Cypress was pretty heavily loaded for a fully supported charity ride, even for an all-day ride in hot weather. He wasn't just packing extra water.

Kelly, of Brampton, is a ham radio operator (VE3VGP-9) as is Pam (in the blue and shirt jersey, VA3PAM). He was kitted out with a portable ham station, linked to his GPS. The result was that he was broadcasting his location as the ride progressed, and could monitor weather and road conditions ahead. Having all this gear meant big-time battery power, but his Giant carried the load well.

07/03/2008

Shannon Pennington of Waterloo has the right idea. It's a nice day, we've got errands to run, let's take the bikes.

So yesterday, she went on a ride down to Kitchener via the Iron Horse Trail to pick up some Wonderland tickets with her daughter Abigale Struyk, 7, and son Jonah Struyk, 4.

Pennington has been riding for more than 30 years (she started as a tot!) and is passing on her cycling genes to the kids.

She's riding a venerable Raleigh Sentinel. Abigale is on a fully suspended used Raleigh Firestorm that was a recent gift from a neighbour. The bike has already had two bike-loving teen owners who kept it in great shape. Jonah is riding behind Mom on an Adams Trail-a-Bike, but Abigale reports that "he has four or five bicycles," including a pedal-free walking bike from Germany.

06/25/2008

My blogging peers will no doubt have great sport with the Canadian launch of BeautifulPeople.net.

It's an elite club where those who can give great face post their pictures and are rated by others members (who gets to be the first members, I wonder). Anyway, I thought that was what FaceBook was for. Apparently I misunderstood the intention of that social networking system.

The object of BeautifulPeople.net is to be an online meet market where the prime cuts can exchange relevant bio information (hmmm, FaceBook again) and eventually hook up.

Doncha think we should have a two-wheeler version? It could take the idea behind Here's My Bike! and ratchet it up a notch or two. Submit a photo of your bicycle and then the existing members of BeautifulBikes.net can vote on whether the bike is beautiful enough to play with the rest of the bicycles.